When Does a Missed Cancer Diagnosis Become Malpractice?

Cancer is a devastating and deadly disease. One of the most frustrating aspects of cancer is that it’s almost always curable when caught in its earliest stages. Once the cancer has spread to the lymph nodes and then to other organs in stages three and four, it is typically terminal. Unfortunately, even when an individual seeks medical care for symptoms, a medical professional may fail to accurately diagnose the cancer or make a misdiagnosis.

When does a missed cancer diagnosis constitute medical malpractice?

Breaching the Duty of Care In Missed Cancer Cases

Not all adverse medical outcomes are medical malpractice. For instance, if a person fails to seek medical care for their symptoms and their cancer is diagnosed as stage 4 terminal cancer, it isn’t medical malpractice. However, if the same individual does seek medical care when their symptoms first arise, and their doctor fails to order the appropriate tests, misinterprets test results, or misdiagnoses the cancer as another medical condition, and then the cancer progresses to stage 4 before being accurately diagnosed, it is medical malpractice because the doctor did not meet the required standard of care.

A doctor’s duty of care requires them to treat a patient within the medical community’s accepted standard of care. When a doctor breaches this duty of care and causes injury, worsens a patient’s condition, or causes death, it constitutes medical malpractice.

How Do Doctors Miss a Cancer Diagnosis?

Some types of cancer have symptoms that mimic other conditions. For instance, a person with early-stage lung cancer may have symptoms that a doctor misdiagnoses as a viral or bacterial respiratory illness, like bronchitis or pneumonia. They could also diagnose the chronic cough and wheezing as allergy symptoms. When a doctor misdiagnoses cancer as a different illness, they not only administer unnecessary medications, but they may also fail to order the proper diagnostic tests, such as medical imaging and blood tests that would otherwise identify the cancer.

The following are the most common ways that doctors miss a cancer diagnosis:

• Misdiagnosing the cancer as another illness
• Failing to order the appropriate diagnostic tests
• Failing to accurately interpret test results
• Failing to obtain a complete patient history

When a doctor misses a cancer diagnosis until it has already metastasized, the breach of their duty of care causes more advanced illness, requiring more aggressive treatment, and causing shortened life expectancy.

What Evidence Do I Need to Prove Cancer Missed Diagnosis or Misdiagnosis?

Proving a doctor’s malpractice in missing a cancer diagnosis requires substantial evidence that the doctor failed to meet the medical community’s accepted standard of care. Evidence in these cases includes:

• Medical records from the facility where the missed cancer diagnosis occurred
• All medical imaging and diagnostic tests from before and after the diagnosis
• Physician’s notes
• A medical report from a provider who isn’t affiliated with the medical facility where the missed diagnosis occurred
• Medical expert testimony to interpret the medical report and explain how the provider breached their duty of care, and how the breach of duty caused the patient’s worsened medical condition 

Although no legal process can erase the harm caused by a delayed cancer diagnosis due to an earlier missed diagnosis by a negligent physician, a successful medical malpractice claim against the provider brings financial accountability and a sense of justice to the victim and their family.